Improvement in buttons



PATENT OFFICE.

PHILIP W. GENGEMBRE, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT lvN BUTTONS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 45,402, dated December 13, 1.864.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PHILIP W. GENGEM- BRE, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State ot Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Buttons; and I do hereby declare the same to be fully described in the following specification and represented in the accompanying drawings, of which- Figure 1 denotes a section of a piece of cloth with a button made in accordance with my invention fastened to it. Fig. 2 denotes an inner side view of the back plate of the button, the drawings being made on an enlarged scale, so as to fully exhibit the said improvement or invention, the nature of which consists in a hollow or chambered or other proper-formed body, as made with an opening or slot through its back or back plate, and with a groove or jaws, or the equivalent thereof, arranged in or on such back plate and across the said opening, substantially as and for the purpose hereinafter described.

The object ot' such opening and groove or jaws is to enable the button to be locked to a catch having the form shown at C in Fig. 1, and more especially inv Figs. 3 and 4, one ot which is a top view and the other a side elevation ofthe catch, it being made with a round head, d, a shank, c, and a trianugular or other propershaped foot, c.

Fig. 5 is another section of the button, taken in a plane at right angles with the plane of section of Fig. l.

In the drawings, A denotes the body of a hollow army-button composed of two plates or disks, a b, coniined together at their edges, either or both of the plates being concavoconvex. The back plate, b, is provided at its center with an oblong aperture, f, for the foot e to pass through. On the inner surface of the back plate of the button there is a groove crossing the aperturef at right angles', or in any other proper direction.

This groove may be formed in the plate b, provided it be thick enough; or it ,may be made by two parallel projections or jaws, g g, axed to and so as to project from the inner side of the plate.

In the drawings, D represents a sprin g composed of a tube of india-rubber or other suitable material, it being made to encompass the shank c of the catch G between the button and the cloth B, and serves to draw the foot of the catch into the groove or between the jaws. By pressing the catch into the buttonthat is, through the opening f. and subsequently revolving either the catch or the button ninety degrees, or thereabout-the catch, by means of the spring D, will be drawn into the groove or the space between the jaws, such groove or space being supposed to be ot sufticientwidth to receive the foot ofthe catch. Thus, the groove and the opening of the button, or the back plate thereof, becomes an important means of connecting the bntton-body to a shank or catch projecting from a piece of cloth or a garment.

In Letters Patent No. 41202 granted to me on the 19th day ot' January, 1864, I have represented the subject of my present invention as combined with an elastic spring (formed of india-rubber or other suitable material) and a catch to go through a garment or piece of cloth, and to aid in fixing the button thereto; consequently 1 do not herein claim the subject of the said patent.

What I do claim as my invention is The improved button or button-body, as made with the opening or slot f and the cross-groove or jaws, arranged together substantially as and for the purpose of aiding in fixing the button-body to a catch, as described.

P. W. GENGEMBRE. Witnesses:

R. H. EDDY, F. I. HALE, Jr. 

